


Haunted Houses Scare Me

by LittleDoYouKnow



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:16:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29435934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleDoYouKnow/pseuds/LittleDoYouKnow
Summary: Carter enters a famous haunted houses with his girlfriend. It's renowned for a reason. A short story.





	Haunted Houses Scare Me

“We should go! Let’s go!” I said excitedly. “We came all the way here; we can’t just _NOT_ go to this haunted house. It’s famous for a reason!”

“Exactly. It’s well-known for a reason. It’s a SCARY haunted house,” she reasoned. “I’m scared…”

“You can hold onto my arm. It’ll be alright! So let’s go, hmm?” I offered my arm out to her. “I really want to.”

After my endless, constant persuasion, she finally caved and agreed to go. We travelled 2 hours to come to this theme park. This was the star of the show. We paid for the tickets and walked in with her holding onto my arm.

It was dark and illuminated by neon green and purple lights. We could barely see anything, but the attention to detail was amazing. Mauled corpses were hung by their necks, dangling over us. I lost count of the number of times my head bumped into their feet. It felt so gross and disgusting. There was some sort of goo on them that got onto me. The haunted house was hot, it was not air-conditioned at all. Within minutes, we were sweating. I wanted her to let go of my arm but even I was creeped out by this place. The worst part of all of this was the horrid smell. The air was thick with the smell of iron and blood. I could understand why this place was famous.

“Oh fuck!” I felt something tap me lightly on the shoulder. My girlfriend looked up at me, confused.

“What? What happened?” she asked.

“I think something touched me,” I said as I felt up my shoulder.

“I didn’t see anything though,” she giggled a bit. “Who’s scared now?”

“I swear I felt it!” I felt something slimy and sticky on my shoulder. “Oh what the fu- what the fuck is this!! “

The texture was incredibly nauseating. I wondered what it was. It was viscous and thick, it seemed to be red, but I could not really tell from the illumination of the lights. I tried sniffing it because the whole area was pungent with the smell of iron. “Ugh, that smells vile,” I thought. “Why’s the room… spinning?” I began to feel dizzy and out of the world.

My feet felt heavy as I was losing my balance, staggering to try to stand still. My ears deafened as if an explosion had just happened right by my ears, there was a high-pitched ringing sound that would not go away. I could not see. It was blurry. I blinked multiple times, but nothing seemed to get better. The last thing I saw was her expression of concern before blacking out.

The first thing I heard was the sound of frogs croaking nearby. It felt wet and sticky. I opened my eyes and my blurry vision eventually cleared up after blinking a few times. I looked around to take in my surroundings; I was sitting in a shallow puddle in some forest. “Where am I?” I was all alone in the dead of night; my vision being aided only by the moonlight.

I got up and dusted myself off. It felt eerily quiet, lest for the sound of the wind breezing through my short, dark hair. Despite my initial disarray, I felt good to smell the fresh air. The thick, pungent smell of iron was so sickening and revolting that I would rather be in a graveyard than be in that haunted house. It was too good a haunted house for its own good. I wandered around the wide-open space of the forest to gauge my situation. The back of my hoodie was stained brown from the muddy puddle I woke up in. “Fuck,” I sighed to myself. It was new. My only solace was that my inner top was not wet because it was fucking freezing. I was surprised I wasn’t dead, I could see my own breath each time I exhaled.

I felt something tug at the hoodie in my hand. “HOLY FUCKING HEL-“ I stumbled backwards onto the ground, falling flat on my ass. Before me stood a girl no older than 7 years old. I would not have been so scared if it were not for the massive axe lodged into the top of her head, which was the only thing I could see from above.

But the fact that she was a living, breathing person who was not conforming to the laws of man was not even the most horrifying part. Falling on my ass, I got a clear view of her stature. She was… _green?_ It looked like the most appalling shade of vomit. Some parts of her skin were burnt and disfigured. She had bloodshot eyes with blood stains strewn down from her left eye to her chin. Her nails were dirty and sharp like claws.

My heart dropped to my stomach in a second.

“AAHHHHHHHHHH FUCK FUCK FUCK GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!” I staggered up to my feet with my eyes locked on her, afraid that she would attack.

“I’m… hungry…” her shrill voice said softly. She approached me and grabbed onto my jeans.

My eyes welled up in tears from fear as I launched my strongest kick at her, flinging her away from me. I saw her fly through the air until she landed with a loud thud on the muddy ground. I was panting, breathing spastic from panic. I did not want to check. I was not sure, but I had to check. I took a few steps to approach her…

She stood up.

I fucking bolted out of there as fast as my legs could carry me. “Why did I have to think I’d have to fucking check if she’s still alive with an AXE in her HEAD?! It’s not fucking human!!”

My legs were aching, my lungs were burning, my heart was pounding in my ears a million beats a minute. I could not stop; I could not rest.

If she caught up to me, I was _dead_.

***Tap tap tap***

I heard her light fucking feet behind me. It was so soft, why was I able to hear it? I glanced behind me and _holy SHIT_ she was RIGHT BEHIND me and catching up to me at the speed of light.

I screamed my lungs out for help, I did not want to fucking die this way. Not to a tiny little girl with a giant axe lodged into her brain. I squeezed my eyes close as I felt her catch up to me, expecting the most painful of deaths I would ever hope to not go through.

But… I felt nothing. I peeked my eyes open and saw her claw the eyeballs out of the bear. I was so busy running away from her, I had not realized the dangers of the forest.

My legs failed me from the relief of keeping my life. I watched her in shock as she turned back to me slowly and offered some of the bloody bear meat in her hands, waiting patiently.

“…Is that… for me?” I asked cautiously.

She nodded as she chewed her own portion raw. I reached out and accepted it. It was not the food that was significant to me, but the fact that appearances really did lie. She was a monster. She was bloody, hurt and small; yet she still offered me food, a person who screamed when he first saw her and kicked her as she gripped onto his jeans to beg for food.

I felt so guilty... How could I have done this? This was the perfect example of ‘Do not judge a book by its cover.’ I cried, I was not sure if it was from the relief of living another day or from hurting a child.

“This child… I have to take care of her,” I thought to myself. Why? I had only just met her, but it was like I could not do anything else but focus on the safety of this creature that had saved my life. I followed her to a tiny shed she seemed to live in. It was filthy with only the bare essentials like a small mattress and the remnants of what seemed to be a campfire.

I started out by cooking the raw bear meat she had offered me. I watched as she cried more bloody tears that followed the same track of bloodstains down her cheek as she tasted the cooked food. I wiped the blood of tears away from her face. It was dirty, so I wiped her face leaving only her burnt, disfigured green skin. But she was clean. I washed her body clean and trimmed her nails so they were no longer claws. I got rid of all the tangles in her hair, brushing my fingers through them slowly. She sat silently, patiently. She did not speak, but I felt a sense of peace with her. I wondered what she had gone through to end up the way she was.

The worst part of cleaning her up was the axe in her head. I was still afraid. I was so careful with her. “What if she dies from blood loss?” I thought I was being ridiculous, the fact that she was still alive, after hell knows how long, implied that she would probably be fine with removing the axe. She was a monster, after all. I did not know if it was actively hurting her. I suggested removing the axe and she nodded obediently.

Days passed, and I had to learn how to get food because I had ‘declawed’ her. It started off with fish, then rabbits, then bears. Over the course of time, I had learnt to get food for the both of us. I took care of her. I thought that was what it felt like to have a daughter, a child of my own. She never spoke after our first encounter, but we communicated well.

We lived in harmony.

I was detangling her hair again one morning when I heard rustling through the woods.

“AGAIN?!” I heard the shrill voice of a woman scream. “You… Why are you here?!” she screamed. I instinctively reached for my axe, gripping it tightly. I examined her closely. Huh? She looked like the spitting image of the little girl. She, too, had green skin with disfigured and burnt skin, with nails as long as claws. I looked her up and down, wondering why I could see the little girl’s future in her face. The woman looked at me with eyes of pity and concern.

“Who are you?” I asked defensively. “Don’t get close!”

“I am her mother. The more important question is who you are,” she said softly.

“I am-” I paused. I stood there, looking at her.

_Who am I?_

“You’re not… from here,” the woman spoke. “You don’t belong here. She is my child. Thank you for watching over my child, you have my gratitude,” she bowed. “I will send you home from where you came.”

“NO!!” the little girl beside me screamed. I had not heard her voice for so long, I had forgotten what it sounded like. “HE’S MINE! GO AWAY!”

“He’s not yours! You there! Do you even remember who you are?”

“I-I…” I stammered.

“You’re not from here. You don’t belong here. She has controlled your mind and bewitched your heart. I am sorry, but she is far too young to understand the wrongs and rights.”

“SHUT UP!” she screamed as she gripped my jeans harder.

“Why should I believe you?!” I panicked, standing on-guard with my axe in hand.

“Do you know how long you’ve been here? You have been watching over her for a year. You don’t remember who you are nor what you’re doing. You’re not in your right min-“

“SHUT UP!!!!” The little girl launched herself at her mother, digging her short nails into the woman’s shoulder. “YOU WON’T TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME, MOTHER!! HE’S **_MINE._** ” The two of them broke out into a fight, clawing at each other.

The older woman reached out frantically and clawed at the little girl’s eye, causing it to bleed. “AAAAAHHHHHHH!!” The little girl started choking her mother, cackling with a shit-eating grin. “You won’t win against me, dear _mothe_ r!”

I could not stand still. What was I to do? The child I had been caring for was going to be a murderer. I ran into the shed in a wave of panic and fetched the soup I was boiling and poured it over both of them to stop them. I did not know what to do. I was confused and disturbed. The little girl craned her neck almost 180 degrees to look at me, and grinned from ear to ear.

“Once I kill her, we can be together forever, _Carter!”_ she said cheerfully before turning back to strangle her mother by the neck.

All of a sudden, my memories rushed back to me. I remembered who I was. I knew who I was. “What am I doing here? Why am I taking care of her?” I wondered. I snapped out of it and looked at her, the little girl I had been watching over for a year, choke her own mother to death. She was not the little girl I had chosen to watch over and care for.

I felt… so heavy in my bones. It was so difficult to move my muscles. I should not have felt pity, sadness and grief. She had manipulated me for a year, brainwashed and controlled me. My breathing was erratic as I slowly reached for the axe on the ground and wrapped my fingers around the handle.

In a frenzy, I rushed towards them and struck the little girl on the top of her head. It cut so deep, it got stuck in there. The little girl stopped moving, then fell to the ground the next moment, motionless. She looked exactly as she did the first time I met her.

The woman coughed and hacked as she tried to recover from the lack of air. “It’s happened again…” she said sadly. “History repeats… it’s happened again… I wonder what number you are… How many…” she cried. “…Sleep child, and next you wake, you will be returned to who you were when you came.”

I felt dizzy and felt a very familiar feeling. My legs lost strength; I fell to the ground. I could not hear nor see anything. Nothing was audible anymore and my vision was blurring with each second. My eyes were closing against my will, I felt so weak. The last thing I saw was the woman’s pained expression before passing out.

“Carter! Carter!!” I heard a very familiar voice of the person I loved. I had not heard it in so long, it felt so surreal. “Are you alright?!”

“What… happened?” I asked, feeling disorientated and panicked.

“You passed out while we were in the haunted house. We immediately got you out and called the ambulance but it hasn’t arrived yet. Are you okay?” she looked at me with eyes of concern.

“Haunted houses… scare me.”

I no longer felt like I was the same man I was a year ago.

**Author's Note:**

> Carter is back! Tried my hand at adventure this time :D I hope you guys liked this short story!
> 
> A commissioned work.


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